3 plan to paddle board across Lake Michigan

Jul. 2, 2013

Trent Masselink, from left, Ginny Melby and Craig Masselink pose for a photo on Lake Michigan Tuesday, July 2, 2013. MLive.com reports 23-year-old Craig Masselink, his 19-year-old brother Trent Masselink and their friend 21-year-old Ginny Melby plan to leave Milwaukee on Sunday for a more than 80-mile crossing of Lake Michigan by sharing time on a paddle board to their families' cottages in West Michigan. / AP

NORTON SHORES, MICH. — Two brothers and a friend are planning a more than 80-mile crossing of Lake Michigan by sharing time on a paddle board.

Craig Masselink, 23, his 19-year-old brother, Trent Masselink, and their friend 21-year-old Ginny Melby plan to leave Milwaukee on Sunday on what is expected to be a 30-plus hour trip to their families’ cottages in West Michigan.

“Pretty much every year we’ve said, ‘Oh, what if we could paddle board across Lake Michigan,’ like kind of a joke but kind of dreaming about it,” Melby told MLive.com. “So this year, we decided it’s now or never, we’re just going to go for it.

“My brother Drew is really adventurous and wanted to paddle board across but he lives in Baltimore now and he has a job, so we’re going to do it.”

Melby lives in Grand Rapids and spent her summers getting to know the Masselinks, who have a cottage next door to her parents’ in Norton Shores.

They plan to set off together with one person on the board while the other two are in a 24-foot boat filled with food, water and supplies.

The paddle aims to raise money for the organization Restore International.

“Bob Goff the author, he’s a lawyer who started Restore International where he goes over to Uganda and fights for girls who are being sold into prostitution and young guys who are being turned into child soldiers,” said Craig Masselink, a pilot and missionary. “He also fights to prosecute those who are doing that. …

“One of the things in our training paddles that keeps us working hard and digging is thinking about the kids in Africa we’re going to be helping with this.”